US-SA relations strained as leaks unveil mistrust within governments, warns expert

US foreign policy expert Michael Walsh has warned that the recent “leaks” between the US and the South African governments were indications of deep mistrust between the two administrations.

Reuters reported on Saturday that US embassy Charge d'Affaires in South Africa, David Greene, reached out to Washington asking for clarification whether non-whites  such as "coloured" South Africans who speak Afrikaans qualify for the refugee program for South Africans under the contentious US policy.

US President Donald Trump's February executive order in February establishing the program specified that it was for "Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," referring to an ethnic group descended mostly from Dutch settlers.

Walsh - a non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank based in Pennsylvania - said on Sunday that the US leak suggested that there was unease with the Trump Administration's policy stance on South Africa within the US. Department of State.

Walsh said since reports indicate that the question was asked in an official diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in South Africa, it means there was someone within the US Government who had access to that confidential cable who was willing to violate information handling protocols in order to throw the Trump Administration under the bus. 

“No one should take that lightly. Whoever leaked the information in that cable would have known that it would play right into the hands of the Trump Administration's critics in the United States and abroad,” Walsh said. 

“In other words, they would have known that it would have led to the characterization of Trump - and by extension the US Government - as racist. That makes it an extraordinary leak. It suggests that there are elements within the US Government who want to undermine the policy platform of the administration.”

However, Walsh said what was not clear was whether their underlying motivation was to undercut the refugee program for Afrikaners or the president himself. 

Either way, he said this leak is likely to elicit a response from the White House and that would be bad news for the US-South Africa relations. 

This comes as the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs last week passed a bill which seeks to re-evaluate the bilateral relationship between the United States and South Africa, and identify government leaders who should be subject to sanctions.

South Africa is also hoping for the US to extend the 1 August deadline for the implementation of the 30% import tariffs on South African products such as agricultural products, metals and vehicles. 

Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, last week told Parliament that South Africa has signed a key agreement with the US trade representative, days before new import tariffs are set to take effect. 

South Africa has no representative in Washington to whom the US government can speak after the expulsion of Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool and the stymied assumption of office by the Presidential Envoy, Mcebisi Jonas.

Democratic Alliance MP Emma Powell recently issued a statement alleging that Jonas had been denied entry to the US and that the country refused to accept his credentials.

Walsh said this leak suggested that there was something rotten in the Government of National Unity. 

He said the DA has made the US Government and other international actors aware of potential threats to Powell, adding that these threats were being taken seriously in Washington.

“When you consider these leaks, I would argue that it becomes clear that there is a latent parallel that can be drawn between what is happening in the United States and South Africa,” Walsh said. 

“It revolves around the internal disagreements that are being waged within the governments over the official foreign policy of the country with respect to the other.

“In the US, that battle is being waged between President Trump and his bureaucrats. In South Africa, it is between the ANC and DA. The leaks manifest those conflicts in a particularly visceral way.” 

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